Spirit of the West joins in the Paralympic spirit with four
other talents, Juno Award-winner Chantal Kreviazuk, Jeremy Fisher, The
Philosopher Kings and Juno Award-winner Jim Byrnes, celebrating the launch of
the 2010 Paralympic logo with a free outdoor concert Saturday, at the Whistler
Golf Course driving range.

Vince Ditrich, drummer and manager for Spirit of the West, is
honoured to be a part of the celebration. After watching his nephew struggle
with an accident that left the young boy a paraplegic, Ditrich has a deeper
respect for the feats of Paralympians.

A snowboarding accident resulting in a broken spine left his
now 30-year-old nephew in a wheelchair with a long recovery ahead of him.

“It shook up the entire family,” Ditrich remembered. “Somehow,
he miraculously got over the hump psychologically. He started up a career. It’s
been seven years now. It took a really long time for him to come to terms with
it. To say, ‘That’s it. It’s not going to get better’ and find ways to prosper
without the use of his legs.”

Ditrich watches his nephew prosper regularly. There is no
podium to stand up on, rather a porch as the nephew, now an architect, draws up
the plans for a new studio behind Ditrich’s home on Vancouver Island.

“The fire and hoops they have to jump through after an injury
is amazing,” Ditrich said. “It is stunning. It is really courageous. When you
see these people competing, you know they’ve poured every ounce of their being
into that achievement. It’s something else.”

The same relentless spirit continues to drive one of Canada’s
most beloved bands. More than 20 years strong, Spirit of the West has clocked
12 albums along with countless miles with tours all over Canada, the U.S.,
United Kingdom and Europe. From four gold and two platinum albums came hits
such as Home For a Rest, And if Venice is Sinking, Five Free Minutes, Save This
House and The Star Trails. The band’s latest album is
Star Trails
.

“They are going to take us off the stage with hooks,” Ditrich
said laughing. “We’ve been together for 23 years…. When we were young, we were
a punk band with Celtic instruments. The show was so energetic. We now come
home like dish rages. We all have kids…. We’ll make another album in the next
year or so, but without a doubt we’ve slowed down. We are in the grand old men
stage — happily. It’s taken some doing. We’ve happily avoided caricatures
of ourselves. Some groups don’t grow old gracefully. They are trying to do the
same moves they did since they were 18 years old. Hopefully we matured with
more grace than that. But still to this day, we do a high-energy show.”

Respected for their achievements and contributions to the
Canadian music scene, the band members can now pick and choose their shows. And
like the musicians themselves, their music has matured — for the better.

“The punky edge has come off to a great degree,” said Ditrich.
“We incorporate Celtic folk stuff into a pop format. It’s our own band, a
buffet of all our personal favourite influences. The lyrics and topic angles we
attack subjects with has become more clever and subtle. The point has always
been to make records you can listen to for a very long time.”

But maturity doesn’t mean the end of youthful high jinks; a
payback prank may be in order at the Whistler concert, with Spirit of the West
on the receiving end.

The band has often shared stages with The Philosopher Kings
— the two even toured across Canada. And at a double-bill show in
Buffalo, New York a high-pressure water gun got involved in the act.

“We might be getting a payback prank, but I am looking forward
to seeing them again, we are old friends,” Ditrich said.